Tuesday, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson decried the double standard of the law as it was applied to January 6 U.S. Capitol rioters and Black Lives Matter rioters throughout 2020.
Carlson referred to the treatment doled out to individuals who allegedly participated in the Capitol Hill event versus anyone who participated in a BLM protest.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Today is the three-month anniversary of January 6. For those of you who aren’t good at dates or don’t have calendars, this is the day that we pause to remember the white supremacist QAnon insurrection that came so very close to toppling our government and ending this democracy forever.
You saw what happened. It was carried live on television, every gruesome moment, a mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes somehow made it all the way to Washington, D.C., probably by bus.
They wandered freely through the Capitol like it was their building or something. They didn’t have guns, but a lot of them had extremely dangerous ideas. They talked about the Constitution and something called their rights.
Some of them made openly seditious claims. They insisted, for example, that the last election was not entirely fair. The whole thing was terrifying.
And then, as you’ve been told, so very often, they committed unspeakable acts of violence. By the time thousands of soldiers arrived to restore order, an unarmed woman, an Air Force veteran lay dead.
To this day, that woman is the one completely verified casualty of the insurrection, the only person whose death we can say definitively was caused by specific events on January 6. We know how she died.
The funny thing is, you almost never hear that woman’s name. Possibly that’s because she was not a Democratic Member of Congress or even a Joe Biden voter.
She was a protester. Her name was Ashli Babbitt. She was 35.
We still don’t know who shot Ashli Babbitt or why. No one will tell us. But then when you’re fighting insurrectionists, you don’t have to explain yourself, you just hyperventilate about QAnon and then you do whatever you want.
When a group of sad, disenfranchised people who have been left out of the modern economy show up at your office, you don’t have to listen to their complaints.
Not for a second, why would you? You thought listening to people’s complaints was democracy? No. These people threatened democracy.
You can even shoot one of them if you want and get away with it.
Killing people without explaining yourself is an established part of counterinsurgency. And if you don’t believe it, check out what happened in the Second World War.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): President Franklin Roosevelt set aside December 7, 1941 as a day that will live in infamy. Unfortunately, we can now add January 6, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: January 6 was Pearl Harbor, says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer has never really gotten appropriate credit for the grandeur of that statement considering the very next day after Pearl Harbor, we entered the Second World War. That war went on for four years, more than 400,000 Americans died, but that was the cost of stopping fascism.
We don’t yet know the cost of stopping white supremacist QAnon insurrection, but you can be certain that Chuck Schumer is prepared to have you pay whatever it costs.
Joe Biden’s Justice Department is on the front lines of this new war, until late last month, a man called Michael Sherwin who worked for the Biden administration as a prosecutor in Washington.
Sherwin bragged that his office had rounded up about 400 people who are in or near the Capitol on January 6. You may be wondering, did 400 people really commit serious crimes that day?
Well, that depends how you define crime. Listen to Michael Sherwin’s definition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL SHERWIN, INTERIM UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: After the sixth, we had an inauguration on the 20th. So I wanted to ensure, and our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe that we could charge as many people as possible before the 20th, and it worked, because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re like, if we go there, we’re going to get charged.
We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, so now it’s clear. It wasn’t that 400 people broke actual laws. No, their crime says the Federal prosecutor was, quote, “thumbing their noses at the public,” meaning the Democratic Party.
So it wasn’t really an insurrection. The problem was they showed disrespect to Joe Biden and his enforcers like Michael Sherwin and that can’t happen anymore.
And that’s why Michael Sherwin decided to use shock and awe to teach them a very nasty lesson, a permanent lesson about expressing their political opinions in public.
As Michael Sherwin explained, quote, “The scope and scale of this investigation are really unprecedented, not only in FBI history, but probably DOJ history.”
And he may be right. How big, how serious is this investigation to those insurrectionists? So serious that the FBI has stopped investigating other crimes and not minor crimes.
According to “USA Today,” quote, “Investigators who typically work cases involving the trafficking of drugs, child pornography and sex, have taken calls from rioters, angry ex-wives and former girlfriends and employers turned tipsters.”
Oh, so in order to stop people who might express unacceptable political ideas in Washington, D.C., we’re not going after people who sell fentanyl for example, killed over a hundred thousand Americans or child pornographers. They won’t be punished.
So who are these people who are being pursued in lieu of tracking down fentanyl dealers and child pornographers? Who is experiencing the administration shock and awe?
Well, people like Anthony Alfred Griffith of Oklahoma. Griffith didn’t throw fire bombs at police cars. He didn’t loot anything. He didn’t torch a Wendy’s. He did something far worse than that. Here’s what he did.
According to KFOR TV, quote: “Griffith walked into the U.S. Capitol Building through the open doors on January 6, telling the agents he did not see any police officers as he entered the building. He then went to a nearby office where he interacted with some individuals before exiting the building. However, he re-entered the U.S. Capitol Building again a short time later where he meandered through the hallways and took a few photos,” end quote.
“He meandered through the hallways,” if you can imagine. And for that act of terrorism, Anthony Griffith faces seven years in prison.
Prosecutor Michael Sherwin is fine with that. At one point, in a “60 Minutes,” interview, Sherwin was asked about bringing sedition charges against the people he arrests, people who meander.
Well, of course, sure, he said, why not?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT PELLEY, “60 MINUTES” CORRESPONDENT: Sedition occurs when anyone opposes by force the authority of the United States or by force, hinders or delays the execution of any law of the United States.
Do you anticipate sedition charges against some of these suspects?
SHERWIN: I believe the facts do support those charges, and I think that as we go forward, more facts will support that, Scott.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, “meandering is sedition,” says Michael Sherwin.
Now just for reference, federal prosecutors typically aren’t supposed to reveal their partisan lunatics on television. Sherwin’s comments were so grotesquely out of line that a Federal Judge appointed by Barack Obama, Amit Mehta said he was considering issuing a gag order to make Michael Sherwin be quiet and stop saying the quiet part out loud.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most powerful Appellate Court in the country just ordered the DOJ to start distinguishing between actual criminals and people who walk through open doors inside the Capitol Building. That ruling came after the DOJ tried to convince the Judge that two defendants, Lisa Eisenhart, and her son, Eric Munchel, should face indefinite detention.
Now, neither Lisa Eisenhart nor her son damaged any property at the Capitol or committed any violence. They just walked in to what we used to refer to as the People’s House. And yet somehow, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice convinced a trial judge that Lisa Eisenhart was a quote, “threat to our Republic,” and that her son was a quote, “would-be martyr.”
Keep in mind, these are people whose crime was trespassing in the Capitol. We’re not endorsing that, but some perspective, please.
It took a ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to bring that perspective, quote: “Two individuals who did not engage in any violence and were not involved in planning or coordinating the activities seemingly would pose little threat.” The Appellate panel wrote. Yes, seemingly.
But the judges still didn’t release Eric Munchel or his mother, Lisa Eisenhart. That’s how much power federal prosecutors have. They can keep you in prison even when a three-judge Appellate panel concludes there is no reason for you to be in prison, and that’s probably why prosecutors still have not, as of tonight, released a man called Jacob Chansley, otherwise known as the Chewbacca guy. You may remember him.
Like Eric Munchel and his mother, Lisa Eisenhart, Jacob Chansley is not accused of committing any act of violence. He is not accused of breaking any property. So what exactly did he do?
Well, we can actually answer that question because it’s on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACOB CHANSLEY, SELF-STYLED QANON SHAMAN: Hey. Hey [bleep], man, glad to see you guys. You guys are [bleep] patriots. Look at this guy, he has got – – you’re covered in blood. God bless you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hurt, sir? Do you need medical attention?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I’m good. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got shot in the face — I got shot in the face with some kind of plastic bullet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will. I’ve been making sure they ain’t disrespecting the place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, just wanted to let you guys know, this is like the sacredest place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.
CHANSLEY: I know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, he’s a threat to the Republic — got an American flag and all. Chewbacca guy is still in jail. He’ll be there indefinitely.
Before you shrug that off, think about what that’s actually like. You don’t want to think about it.
Tonight, we learned that a number of people arrested on January 6 are still rotting in the D.C. jail, municipal lockup. That’s one of the foulest places in this country. It’s a truly repulsive and mismanaged place. Ask anyone from Washington, D.C.
What would you do not to be thrown into the D.C. jail? It’s that bad.
Some of the people held from January 6, they’ve been beaten not surprisingly, by guards. They are beaten badly.
Lawyers for one man, a man called Ryan Samsel say he was beaten by guards so badly he has a skull fracture and he is now blind in one eye.
How many Antifa rioters or BLM vandals can say that? Do they lose their eyesight from being beaten in jail? Well, as a group, they didn’t spend much time in jail actually. Most were sprung on bail immediately when politicians like Kamala Harris helped them pay to get out.
Last summer for example, authorities released a terrorism suspect in Oklahoma called Eric Christopher Ruffin, after Black Lives Matter posted his $750,000.00 bond. According to authorities, Ruffin, quote: “Encouraged others to burn an Oklahoma County Sheriff’s van and Oklahoma City Bail Bonds business, May 30th.” The van was destroyed. The bail bondsman had $8,850.00 in damage from broken windows.
But Eric Christopher Ruffin went home and he went home for one reason. Unlike the Chewbacca guy, he did not upset the people in charge. He didn’t walk in their Sacred Chamber, talk about liberty and rights. He just tried to vaporize some police vehicles, and that’s exactly what our political class wanted him to do. So he’s a hero. He’s fine tonight.
He hasn’t lost his eyesight getting a beating in the D.C. jail.
This kind of thing: unequal treatment under the law is on stark display across the country right now. We could spend an hour giving you examples. Here are a couple.
On Saturday, police say a criminal released on emergency coronavirus bail stabbed an elderly Asian woman to death in Riverside, California. The suspect is called Darlene Montoya. She was in jail for a very serious crime. She’d been accused of assault with a deadly weapon. But is that really as serious as meandering through the Capitol Building? No, come on. It’s not insurrection.
So Darlene Montoya got to walk out of jail and find someone else to hurt.
In December, a New York judge released a murder suspect called Jordan Benjamin just in time for Benjamin to go out and allegedly stab a woman in the stomach. Jordan Benjamin then got out of jail again — again.
Meanwhile, in the City of Detroit, a judge decided to release four felons who have been convicted of criminal sexual assault and another 14 people who’ve committed assault. The judge said that coronavirus justified their release.
Well, according to prosecutors, one of those felons went out and raped three women at knifepoint.
Why haven’t you read this? Nobody covers it. It happens too often to notice.
But in March, one of those murders were caught on video. And so you may have seen this. It was impossible to ignore. It happened in Washington, D.C. Two teenage girls, one 15 and one, 13, carjacked and then killed a Pakistani immigrant driver called Mohammad Anwar. You had a bunch of kids just trying to work, trying to make a buck.
As Anwar lay dying on the sidewalk– and this gives you a sense of where these girls are coming from — one of them complained that the real crisis was she couldn’t find her cell phone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. She’s still their car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She’s stealing the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we called the cops. We called the cops.
[CRASH]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They stole the car. These girls stole the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God. Oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come out. Come out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, they stole the car. They stole the car. These girls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those girls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody step back. I am going to need everybody to step back from the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please. My phone is in there. My phone. My phone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So you kill a guy, who is just trying to work, and then you can’t even be bothered to notice as he dies in the sidewalk because you’re worried about your phone. There’s a big problem with these girls. They’re young, for sure. But they did something awful. They’re not being treated that way. They got a plea deal.
According to news accounts, they will be released as soon as they turn 21, maybe earlier.
There’s a good chance that Chewbacca guy will spend more time in jail for trespassing with an American flag than the people who killed Mohammad Anwar will spend for murder.
And that’s not an accident, actually, this disproportionate treatment of crimes. If you’re an autocrat, the biggest threat isn’t people who commit actual violence, you can use them as your shock troops and people who run our country certainly have.
The biggest threat to you if you’re an autocrat is people who mock you and don’t take you seriously and sneer at you. You want them in prison and they’re putting them up in prison.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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